New York Democrat Andrew Cuomo formally announced his gubernatorial bid on Saturday.

(CNN) – New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo holds large leads over all three of his possible Republican opponents in this year's battle for Empire State governor, according to a new poll.

The Siena Research Institute survey, released Monday morning, comes two days after Cuomo officially announced his gubernatorial bid and one day before New York State Democrats and Republicans hold nominating conventions. The survey was conducted before Cuomo formally launched his bid.

The poll indicates Cuomo leads former Rep. Rick Lazio by 42 points, 66 percent to 24 percent, and tops Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, a Democrat turned Republican, and Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino by the same margin, 65 percent to 22 percent, in each case.

According to the survey, Lazio has a 13-point advantage over Paladino and 15-point lead over Levy in the battle for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

Cuomo, the son of former three-term New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, has been widely expected for many months to make a bid to be the state's next chief executive.

"Cuomo has been the prohibitive favorite to be elected New York's next governor, even before he officially declared his candidacy. With a little more than five months until Election Day, nothing has happened to change that dynamic," says Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. "He is viewed more favorably than any candidate in New York, and he has forty-plus-point leads over all three declared candidates for the Republican nomination."

New York's current governor, fellow Democrat David Paterson, announced in March that he would not run this year for a full term in office. Paterson became governor in 2008 after Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace following a sex scandal.

The 52-year-old Cuomo was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during former President Bill Clinton's second term. He had an unsuccessful run for New York's Democratic gubernatorial nod in 2002, which was followed by a messy public divorce from his wife, Kerry Kennedy. Cuomo bounced back in 2006 by being elected the state's attorney general. As his office has investigated corruption on Wall Street, Cuomo has been back in the national spotlight in the past two years.

In the battle for the Senate, the poll indicates Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has her highest favorability rating ever in Siena surveys, with 42 percent saying they have a favorable opinion of her and 24 percent holding an unfavorable view. According to the survey, Gillibrand tops 50 percent in hypothetical general election matchups against all three possible GOP opponents.

Gillibrand, who represented an upstate New York congressional district, was appointed to the Senate early last year by Gov. Paterson to replace Hillary Clinton, who stepped down to become Secretary of State. Gillibrand is running this year to serve out the remaining two years of Clinton's term.

The Siena Research Institute poll was conducted May 17-20 and surveyed 905 New York State registered voters by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

soundoff(12 Responses)

Cuomo is going to wIN!!!! No IFS – ANDS – OR – BUTS about it!! And that 'transformer' from Suffolk County should have learned his lesson from others who SWITCH PARTIES!!!!

I wish I still live in NY so I can cast my vote – but I will cast it in SPIRIT!!!

May 24, 2010 11:22 am at 11:22 am |

Chui

Blumenthal the CN Attorney General at age 64 is a pure simple liar. Who in order to get the Vietnam Vet vote, conjured up lies, when in fact he was no where near Vietnam. He like all the rest of these malignant narcissist politicians is worst kind of scum bags. He got five deferments just like Dick Cheney, and like George W. Bush had a cushy Job as a Marine Reservist , just pushing paper on weekend at his convenience. All he will do in the Senate if elected is to just add more dysfunction, inefficiency for his own self interests and self righteousness. He belong with the group of good old boy politicians, who have been at it all their lives.

May 24, 2010 11:26 am at 11:26 am |

Chessnutz of Liverpool NY

May God help those of us who have to live here in NYS? Going into month three with no budget in place, taxes and fees going up by double digit percentages everywhere, librarians in NYC getting $600,000.00 dollar salaries and the Legislature can not seem to find any ways to cut spending?
People and businesses running out of state as fast as they can, NYS Government is TOO big and TOO slow to help the people any more.
Will the last person to leave NYS please put the cat out and turn of the lights?

May 24, 2010 11:31 am at 11:31 am |

doug

Since he is running the Democrats hold their wild card.

If they ever need someone to run in New York for Senate or Governor, they have a person who will win in a landslide, John Gotti Jr.

The Democrats think Gotti is a god in New York. They admire his work, and honestly, is his record any worse than most Democrats?

May 24, 2010 11:39 am at 11:39 am |

awaitingliberalizationbyCNN

Perfect, another mafia member for the democratic party. He can probably run for president and will, Obozo did and he is crooked and corrupt.

May 24, 2010 11:54 am at 11:54 am |

Abe

I am happy to see Cuomo is running for the governors office. He is a no nonsense individual who has made corporations and institutions accountable for there mistakes. A great consumer advocate.

May 24, 2010 12:03 pm at 12:03 pm |

ric in NY

As a NYer, im baffled as to why the state would elect another radical liberal like Cuomo. After Spitzer and the disasterous Patterson, NYers actually want more of the same hard left social and economic policies that have tanked the state?

NY state is the perfect example of the radical left gone wild. People here are so ideological that they will vote for the liberal polices that have bankrupted the state because they cant bring themselves to vote for anything but a democrat. Cuomo, like Obama, could murder people in cold blood on prime time TV and liberals would still be at the polls, drooling to vote for them. Talk about kool-aid drinkers, none of you have seen anything until you experience NY leftism.

Thats how sad my beloved state has become. And im not even a republican..

May 24, 2010 12:05 pm at 12:05 pm |

TwM

If he is only half as bad as his father was, NY is in deep trouble.

May 24, 2010 12:07 pm at 12:07 pm |

Rick McDaniel

Unfortunately, voting for the Dems, has become a vote for dictatorship in America.

I could not support Cuomo, if I were a NY voter.

May 24, 2010 12:23 pm at 12:23 pm |

Melora, Longwood, Florida

It was about time!!! New Yorkers need him in Albany, and with God's help and the voters' we will soon have him as our next successful Governor of the Empire State..... Good luck in the campaint, Andy. There are plenty of us rooting for you!!!

May 24, 2010 12:29 pm at 12:29 pm |

Incredulous

New York can only be fixed by (i) reforming the way Albany works (the "three men in a room" model of democracy or its present variant,the "Speaker rules the State) and (ii) getting massive givebacks from the unions, particularly the MTA and the Teachers union. Coumo has never taken on the unions because he relies on them for his support. We need a Governor like Christie in New Jersey who talks sense and backs it up.

May 24, 2010 12:46 pm at 12:46 pm |

ac

I thought that NY was for change, but it appears that the same old is back.